Night Terrors
by Knight0fHeart
Summary: It's common knowledge that Sollux suffers from frequent night terrors. After a particularly bad nightmare, Karkat is by his side within moments, as is routine.


Sollux is screaming when he awakes, and you're immediately at his side, jumping into the green tinted slime with no regards for your clothes, only worry for the Gemini.

And suddenly, you're there behind him, holding him against your chest and stroking his hair, listening to his frantic pleas to _"make them stop, oh god, please make them stop. They're screaming and bleeding and their eyes are white and-". _You nod and wipe some of the slime off of his face and all you can do right now is keep him close to you and let him know that you're real, that you're there.

He's still panting and murmuring to himself when you stand up and pull him out of the slime, for the fear of you or him falling asleep in the sedative that is said to keep terrible visions of blood and carnage that plague your species at bay, although you're beginning to wonder if this is true. You assure him that everything is alright, everyone is fine, none of you were harmed or dead and that things would stay like that. He's still distant, and drenched, the slime slipping off of the two of you and forming puddles on the ground, not that you care.

You sling his arm over your shoulder and wrap your arm around his waist, your fingers pressing into the skin lightly, and begin to move towards to bathroom, helping him along. He is in no shape to be doing anything. You finally make it to the room and switch on the light. You have to shield your eyes temporarily because the white light is so bright, it could probably blind anyone stupid enough to look into it for more than 30 seconds. You sit Sollux down on the floor and turn on the shower, allowing the water to heat up. You help him up again and manage to get him in, the heat of the water already fogging up the glass.

He sits there, and you can't help but feel bad for him. You watch his slender figure move up and down gently with each breath, his body curved into himself. He wasn't there right now. He was somewhere else. You sit down next to him, leaning against the door frame as the only sound filling the room is the water hitting Sollux's body and your own heartbeat.

The water rolls over his body as if he were made of wax paper, his hair slicked down onto his hollow cheeks, emphasizing the angles that seemingly made up his entire figure. His eyes were sad, and had dark shadows underneath of them. A single bead of liquid hung onto his lip for dear life. His clothes were pasted onto his body, dark and heavy.

His whispers had gone silent, but he wasn't at peace and you knew it. His eyes opened wide, and he seemed panicked. Sparks of red and blue encircled his head, in a sort of halo. His hands has clenched, his nails digging into the small tiles and his teeth sinking into his bottom lip. His eyebrows were knitted close together, and his breathing was off-beat. You reached out a hand to touch him, and he recoiled, shying away from the contact. You assured him again that it was okay, that it was just you, and moved closer. He didn't flinch.

You stepped inside of the shower with him and let the slime be washed off of you, sitting down after a moment and wrapping your arms around him, pressing your chest to his back. He was tense, but had soon relaxed, letting out a soft sigh. You rest your chin on his shoulder, in the crook of his neck, and say soothing things. You tell him that he needs to listen to you right now, because you're the only voice that matters at this point, the only one he needs to hear, and you know he's trying to focus on you. His hands relax, and he lets go of his lip.

And you sit there. In the soothing silence.

He turns around and faces you, asks you to come closer, and you oblige. You drape your legs over his and sit almost chest to chest, completely pressed against each other. He asks for your hand, and you give it to him, playing with his fingers for a while before he decides to fill the empty spaces, and grasps your hand as if it were his life line. The water was still on, but you didn't care, and he obviously didn't.

He slides his hand up your arm and wraps his arms around your shoulders, and you wrap yourself around his waist and fill the hours with hugs and hushed promises to always be there for each other. This was the routine.

You wouldn't have it any other way.

You wouldn't have _him_ any other way.


End file.
